Colleen Platford | Hot 40 2014

Colleen Platford, Gilbert + Tobin

Platford was the lead partner representing Google in its landmark High Court win against the ACCC in February 2013. The ACCC initially alleged that Google had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct over sponsored links or advertisements which appeared on its search results pages. The High Court found that Google was not responsible for the content of third party ads displayed on its search results pages. This benchmark case raised significant issues for the internet, particularly in relation to the responsibility for third party content by search engines. The case was in the Federal Court of Australia – it went on appeal and ultimately to the High Court.